1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a apparatus and a method for measuring the degree of cure of adhesive agent.
2. Description of the Related Art
Adhesive agent such as epoxy type adhesive agent has been used in an assembling process of optical device or electronic device. It is necessary to measure the degree of cure of adhesive agent in a production process using such adhesive agent for the purpose of (1) grasping the temperature and time at which adhesive agent cures and determining a cure condition; (2) checking whether adhesive agent is cured as expected under a specified temperature and time condition when adhesive production lot is changed; and (3) checking whether adhesive agent is cured as expected under a specified temperature and time condition when the adhesive agent has been stocked for a long term.
(1) An FT-IR method (see JP-A-2007-248431, for example), (2) a DSC method (see JP-A-2-229741, for example) and (3) a method of measuring the degree of cure with a micro-hardness tester (see JP-A-3-105233) and the like are known as a method of measuring the degree of cure of adhesive agent.    [Patent Document 1] JP-A-2007-248431    [Patent Document 2] JP-A-2-229741    [Patent Document 3] JP-A-3-105233
With respect to the FT-IR method, it is necessary to prepare many samples under different temperature and time conditions and measure all of these samples. Therefore, much time and efforts are necessary, and also an available measuring apparatus is expensive. With respect to the DSC method, much time is taken to prepare and measure samples, and also it is impossible to grasp the relationship between temperature and curing time. With respect to the method with the micro-hardness tester, it is necessary to prepare many samples cured under different temperature and time conditions and also measure all of these samples; therefore, much time and efforts are necessary. In addition, this method has a problem that it is difficult to quantify a measurement result.